Gaza innocents as usual suffer the most from Israeli airstrikes: Steve Sosebee

Palestinians inspect the rubble of the destroyed house of Hamas militant Mohammad Abu Shmala, following an Israeli air strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Friday.Eyad Baba, Associated Press

Ramallah, West Bank -- I first heard the name Farah Abu Halima when she was only 3 years old. It was then, in January 2009, that a white phosphorous bomb hit her home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, killing five of her relatives, including her mother.

That was then.

Today, at 7, Farah is a veteran of many battles -- to soothe her burns, stitch her wounds, heal her memory.

But just as she had begun to enjoy a recovery made possible by volunteer (American) surgeons, who have helped reconstruct much of what Farah lost four years ago, Farah has once again fallen victim to the steely wrath of (American) weapons.

As Israel pounds Gaza with hundreds of tons of munitions, placing 100 percent of its 1.7 million Palestinian residents within a single "boom" of their lives, Farah is now the one providing comfort to her brothers and sisters, who huddle with her in their small, rebuilt apartment fearing the bombs that fall around them, from the air and sea.

As Israel and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza exchange a new round of lopsided punches, the real victims of the continued illegal occupation of the narrow coastal strip will continue to be its besieged and impoverished population, made up mostly of young people with little prospects of a secure or fruitful future, and hundreds of thousands of refugees who lost their land in what is now Israel back in 1948.

No one can separate the larger political context of Palestinian statelessness, a just solution for refugees in and out of Palestine, and the end of Israel's decades-long occupation from the hourly increase in innocent casualties in Gaza. Until the core issues that have defined this conflict since 1948 are addressed in a just and comprehensive manner, we will continue to see innocent victims bear the brunt of political cowardice on all sides.

Much like the nearly monthlong assault on Gaza that began in December 2008, when Israeli forces killed 313 Palestinian children and injured thousands more, the burden to ensure that innocent victims get access to the specialized medical care that undoubtedly many of them will require rests on international organizations like ours, The Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Yet, like our colleagues working with other humanitarian organizations in Gaza, we are hamstrung by the void of political stalemate, in which a just solution to this generations-old conflict is endlessly -- and brutally -- delayed in favor of war and the continued occupation of a strip of land barely 25 miles long and not even eight miles wide at its widest point.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza accumulate lasting emotional damage, for which there is no cure other than ceasing the violence.

In the best of times, repairing that damage is challenging work. But now it is nearly impossible to make progress when a new round of violence leaves an already teetering health care system on the brink of collapse. A case in point: Just last Sunday, we sent a five-member team of plastic and reconstructive surgeons from Switzerland and Germany into Gaza to treat injured kids like Farah, while also providing training for local doctors. Thursday, they were forced to flee their operating rooms, preparing for a new generation of victims.

To be sure, the new round of casualties arriving by the hour will only strain Gaza's fragile health care system. But the long-term impact of Israel's merciless bombing campaign will be most felt at the all-too-familiar markers of Gaza's buried children.

In the first day alone, 19-year-old Hiba Aadel Fadel al-Masharawi and her brother Omar, 11 months old, were killed by an Israeli shell fired at their home in Gaza City. An hour earlier in a nearby neighborhood, 5-year-old Ranana Arafat was killed when an F-16 -- the "Fighting Falcon" -- unleashed hell on her family's home. At least 26 children have been wounded, some gravely. And this is all in the first 24 hours.

When this round of bloodletting and political posturing finally ceases, we will surely see dozens if not hundreds more innocent children like Farah Abu Halima in need of specialized care that is not available to them locally. While we can help repair some of the physical damage done by U.S.-funded weapons on the civilian population in Gaza, no group or person can repair the damage to the hearts and minds of these injured children as they grow up in a tiny, besieged, impoverished enclave of refugee camps and slums.

I read once that a man never stands so tall as when he kneels to help a child. Until we find leaders with real political courage in Tel Aviv, Washington, Ramallah and Gaza -- leaders who see Palestinians and Israelis, and especially the children among them, not as statistics in a game of brinkmanship, but rather as human beings with equal national, political and human rights -- this round of senseless violence will only be a bookmark until the next, larger round.

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